Hong Kong's Johnson Electric expanding to Serbia

Hong Kong's Johnson Electric Holdings Ltd. will launch a new production facility in Nis, Serbia in 2014, Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić said in a statement.

The company will produce plastic and metal components for major automotive manufacturers, including BMW, Volvo, and Jaguar.

Johnson Electric will create 250 jobs at the Serbian facility this year, and a total of 1,050 jobs by July 2016. Construction work in Nis was started in October 2013. The plant will have a production area of close to 10,000 square meters, the statement said.

Austin Wong, vice president of Johnson Electric for Europe, said the plant will start production in the fall.

The Serbian government contributed 9 million euros ($12.3 million) to the investment through the state-run Serbia Agency for Investment and Export Promotion (SIEPA), the statement said.

The project is the most significant investment in this part of Serbia in the last 15 years, Vučić said.